GOVNET In the Works

gtg010b writes: "According to USA Today, the U.S. government is considering a private network to be used for all government communications. This network would be "separate from the Internet to keep it safe from hackers or terrorists" according to Richard Clarke, the head of the president's "cyberspace security adviser." Whatever happened to government not being above the people?" Clarke is the guy who's been crying "cyber Pearl Harbor" for a few years; apparently if you cry wolf long enough you get promoted. His request (.doc format) is informative. I should point out that the U.S. military already has such a network (I'm not even going to ask why the Feds can't piggy-back on it), so GOVNET would be for critically-important government agencies like the Department of Agriculture to communicate.

Comments

Nothing New

[nathanm]

The US gov't already has worldwide networks that aren't connected at all to the internet, at least in DOD.

In the US Air Force, they refer to the internet as NIPRNET (Non-secure IP Router Network). Only unclassified info is sent across it, and sensitive unclassified or privacy act info is restricted to .mil or .gov users only.

The other network is called SIPRNET (Secret IP Router Network). On military installations its conduit is encased in concrete, junction boxes are alarmed, & cable drops are only in secure areas. Off the installations it's encrypted. I imagine the encryption is pretty strong since NSA designs the algorithms.

For more info check out these AF regulations:

AFI 33-202: Computer Security

AFMAN 33-221: Computer Security: Protected Distribution Systems (PDS)